City sneak into play-offs, Liverpool finish top as UCL preliminary round ends

Raphael Onyedika, a Super Eagles of Nigeria midfielder, scored in Club Brugge’s 3-1 loss to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium in their UEFA Champions League (UCL) encounter on Wednesday.

The final preliminary stage match threatened to put a spanner in the works for Man City, who needed a win to clinch a play-off place, and Pep Guardiola’s side did just enough with a second-half comeback to claim all three points.

Club Brugge put on an ultra-defensive show early on to deny their hosts space and hit City on the counter. Their plan came together on the stroke of halftime when Onyedika completed a counter with a well-hit shot into the back of the net.

Man City regrouped in the second half and levelled the match in the 53rd minute when Matteo Kovacic took matters into his hands to drive City forward unchallenged before slotting into the back of the net.

Joel Ordonez scored an own goal from Josko Gvardiol’s cross to hand Man City the advantage before Savinho, a halftime substitute, secured all three points in the 77th minute. The Brazilian controlled John Stones’ cross before finding the bottom corner to score his first UCL goal for the club.

With the victory, Man City finished 22nd in the UCL league phase with 11 points from eight matches, securing a playoff place. Club Brugge also finished 24th, taking the last playoff spot.

Elsewhere, Real Madrid, the defending champions, won 3-0 at Brest to finish 11th and miss out on automatic qualification for the round of 16 despite goals from Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham.

At the top of the table, Liverpool lost their perfect group record with a 3-2 loss to PSV Eindhoven in Holland to finish as group winners, while Barcelona finished second following a 2-2 draw with Atalanta.

RESULTS

Aston Villa 4-2 Celtic
Barcelona 2-2 Atalanta
Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 Sparta Praha
Bayern Munich 3-1 Slovan Bratislava
Borussia Dortmund 3-1 Shakhtar Donetsk
Brest 0-3 Real Madrid
Dinamo Zagreb 2-1 AC Milan
Girona 1-2 Arsenal
Inter Milan 3-0 Monaco
Juventus 0-2 Benfica
Lille 6-1 Feyenoord
Manchester City 3-1 Club Brugge
PSV Eindhoven 3-2 Liverpool
Salzburg 1-4 Atletico Madrid
Sporting Lisbon 1-1 Bologna
Sturm Graz 1-0 RB Leipzig
Stuttgart 1-4 Paris Saint Germain
Young Boys 0-1 Crvena Zvezda